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I’ve always wanted to understand how does one participate in the music industry and shame it all at once. Remember Kanye’s consumerism and pop culture rant, you know the consumerism that enables Kanye to buy North West expensive diapers and Kim Kardashian new lambos? It’s that same consumerism that keeps artists going. From consumerism to pop culture, as an artist, you’re both a product of it and an enabler, but is there a fine line to walk? Rising star, Lorde, is walking it and benefiting from it quite well.

“While I love a good critique of wealth accumulation and inequity, this song is not one; in fact, it is deeply racist. Because we all know who she’s thinking when we’re talking gold teeth,Cristal and Maybachs. So why shit on black folks? Why shit on rappers? Why aren’t we critiquing wealth by taking hits at golf or polo or Central Park East? Why not take to task the bankers and old-money folks who actually have a hand in perpetuating and increasing wealth inequality? I’m gonna take a guess: racism”

But what Flores failed to point out is that “blood stains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room”, isn’t part of rap or hip-hop culture, but more along the lines of the Miley Cyrus’, Taylor Swift and Lindsay Lohans of the worlds. You can’t point out one, and just gloss over the other. But it doesn’t make it racism. And it also doesn’t make what she’s saying innovative.

“I think there’s a funny culture in music that’s only happened over the last 15 years, that if you have an opinion about something in music that isn’t 100-percent good, you’re a ‘hater,’ even if you have perfectly reasonable grounds for that critique,” she said. “People will say exactly what they think about a movie or a TV show, and that’s fine, but as soon as you say it about a record, you’re like some little zombie in a funny dungeon.

“I have pretty strong morals and opinions being in pop music, and I can’t help but express those, which I think people appreciate,” she continued. “I mean, I don’t think I say anything that isn’t backed up. Most of the time I will stand by things that I’ve said.”

The music industry loves contrived “messages”. I’m the type of person to see it for what it is, record sales. This time the message is packaged in the form of a 16-year-old white girl from New Zealand, who doesn’t mind shitting on her peers at the same time. Or maybe she doesn’t consider the likes of Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus her peers at all. Since she’s so more ‘evolved’ than them. Will I listen to Lorde? Sure, I give props when they’re due. Lorde’s voice is amazing and she’s a breath of fresh air in a world polluted by Miley Cyrus.

Lorde isn’t the first artist to come after a whole industry while profiting from it. And I’m quite sure she won’t be the last.